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From: markspace <markspace@nospam.nospam>
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Subject: Re: praise
Date: Tue, 25 Feb 2014 16:46:32 -0800
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On 2/25/2014 3:01 PM, Lew wrote:

> Stefan Ram wrote:
>>    One can even learn from it notions such as »package-tree
>>    semantics« versus »traditional package semantics« or facts
>>    such as »a class's constructors and methods can run prior to
>>    its initialization« (»its« = »the class'«).

>
> Strange. The JLS says:
> http://docs.oracle.com/javase/specs/jls/se7/html/jls-12.html#jls-12.4
> "A class or interface type T will be initialized immediately before the first occurrence of any one of the following:
>  [the class is used]
> So that contradicts.
>

The paragraph Stefan is referring to, I think, is:

" There is, however, one corner case that demands special treatment. It 
is possible, though generally not desirable, to execute methods or 
constructors prior to initialization. This can happen when a class 
hierarchy contains a circularity in its static initialization."

So it looks to me like the JLS is implying a "best effort" to initialize 
a class before it is used, but can't absolutely guarantee it in all cases.

It would be an interesting experiment to try to write some code to 
reproduce the case where a ctor is called before its initialization.